Behaviour Change

PROPAGANDA FOR CHANGE is a project created by the students of Behaviour Change (ps359) and Professor Thomas Hills at the Psychology Department of the University of Warwick. This work was supported by funding from Warwick's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

A little Guilt can go a long way

This advert was created for Amnesty to highlight one of the
most troubling issues of current times, Child Poverty. It uses various
effective persuasion techniques to get people to do something about this
problem.

Guilt is the first and most clear persuasive tactic used
within this billboard poster. When people observe this image of a child from a
background of being brought up in poverty, they naturally feel guilty. How can
someone viewing this whilst leading a life of luxuries and comforts not feel
some sense of guilt? Through many experiments, such as that carried out by
Carlsmith and Gross (1969), it has been shown that individuals experiencing
guilt are more likely to then comply with a request. This shows the importance
of the second statement in the advert “Help stop Child Poverty in America”.
This request is more likely to be accepted as a result of the guilt felt by the
onlooker because it induces a desire to make restitution and repair their own self-image
(Pratkanis, 2007).

In addition to this, a second, equally effective influence
technique is used. Due to the adverts use of Child Poverty in particular as
opposed to poverty as a whole, it places the onlooker into the role of a
Responsibility Agent due to the child being in a position of dependency clearly
expressed through the advert. A study
run by Berkowitz and Daniels (1963) showed that when an individual is placed in
a position of responsibility toward a dependent they were more protective of
that person, helping wherever they can. In terms of this advert, it would lead
the Responsible Agent to look further into being able to help with this issue
through Amnesty.

The combination of these persuasive techniques would surely
produce an additive and stronger effect. This would lead to a hopefully
successful campaign for Amnesty in trying to tackle the issue at hand.